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Mark KrasnowAcademic Appointments
Appointment
Organization
Professor
Member
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Administrative Appointments
Title
Organization
Start Year
End Year
Chair
Stanford University School of Medicine - Biochemistry
2006
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Investigator
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
1997
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Postdoctoral Advisees
Andy Chang,
Jichao Chen,
Maya Kumar,
Anna Lyuksyutova,
Mary Red-Horse,
Vikram Sudarsan
Web Site Links
Research/Lab website:
Krasnow Lab
Research Interests
We are studying the biochemical mechanisms of cell migration, cytoplasmic extension, and cell adhesion during development of the Drosophila tracheal (respiratory) system. The tracheal system is a network of epithelial tubes that transports oxygen to the tissues, like the lungs and vascular system in mammals. We use a combined in vivo and in vitro approach, employing genetic, cellular, and molecular methods to identify and characterize genes involved in the processes, and reconstruction of the processes in simplified in vitro systems to study the functions of the identified gene products.
The development of the 80 cells in each segment that form the tracheal system has been characterized, and more than a dozen genes that regulate branch formation and outgrowth have been identified so far. Formation of the major tracheal branches is controlled by a homolog of mammalian fibroblast growth factors; it selects the positions where branches bud and guides the migration of tracheal cells during branch outgrowth via a receptor tyrosine kinase expressed on tracheal cells. We are trying to elucidate this FGF signaling pathway and understand how it controls cell migration. The fine terminal branches form by extension of long cytoplasmic processes from tracheal cells towards oxygen-starved tissues. This is regulated by chemotactic factor(s) secreted by hypoxic tissues. We have characterized several genes in this signaling pathway, and we are searching for the chemotactic factor. We wish to determine how the chemotactic factor and the other signaling components guide cytoplasmic outgrowth. We are also studying epithelial tube fusion, the process by which tracheal tubes from one segment find and fuse with tubes in the neighboring segments to connect up the tracheal network.
The development of the 80 cells in each segment that form the tracheal system has been characterized, and more than a dozen genes that regulate branch formation and outgrowth have been identified so far. Formation of the major tracheal branches is controlled by a homolog of mammalian fibroblast growth factors; it selects the positions where branches bud and guides the migration of tracheal cells during branch outgrowth via a receptor tyrosine kinase expressed on tracheal cells. We are trying to elucidate this FGF signaling pathway and understand how it controls cell migration. The fine terminal branches form by extension of long cytoplasmic processes from tracheal cells towards oxygen-starved tissues. This is regulated by chemotactic factor(s) secreted by hypoxic tissues. We have characterized several genes in this signaling pathway, and we are searching for the chemotactic factor. We wish to determine how the chemotactic factor and the other signaling components guide cytoplasmic outgrowth. We are also studying epithelial tube fusion, the process by which tracheal tubes from one segment find and fuse with tubes in the neighboring segments to connect up the tracheal network.
Publications
- Metzger RJ, Klein OD, Martin GR, Krasnow MA "The branching programme of mouse lung development." Nature 2008; More »
- Luschnig S, Bätz T, Armbruster K, Krasnow MA "serpentine and vermiform Encode Matrix Proteins with Chitin Binding and Deacetylation Domains that Limit Tracheal Tube Length in Drosophila." Curr Biol 2006; 16: 2: 186-194 More »
- Levi BP, Ghabrial AS, Krasnow MA "Drosophila talin and integrin genes are required for maintenance of tracheal terminal branches and luminal organization." Development 2006; 133: 12: 2383-93 More »
- Metzstein MM, Krasnow MA "Functions of the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway in Drosophila development." PLoS Genet 2006; 2: 12: e180 More »
- Ghabrial AS, Krasnow MA "Social interactions among epithelial cells during tracheal branching morphogenesis." Nature 2006; 441: 7094: 746-9 More »
38 publications: view full list
